Even as a video mocking a slow-moving bank teller goes viral, others stand up to expose the truth behind an ignorant and insensitive joke.
A video of a bank teller working at an extremely slow pace recently went viral across social media, garnering close to 15 million views, with users criticising the “lazy employee and raging in general about being made to wait in lines at banks. The unfortunate thing is, while the video does show that the woman is being extremely slow in her movements, it leaves out one crucial bit of information.
Premlata Shinde, sarcastically called the “fastest cashier in the world”, actually has a valid medical reason for her processing speed. Activist Kundan Srivastava, recently posted Shinde’s story on Facebook, to give the whole truth of the matter. The teller is an employee of Bank of Maharashtra in Pune, set to retire in February 2017. The important detail to note is that, Shinde is not in the prime of her health, having suffered a paralytic stroke and two heart attacks in the recent past. In fact, she has just returned to her job, when the original video was filmed, after undergoing medical treatment during a prolonged leave of absence. According to Srivastava, Shinde has enough available paid leave to stay at home until February, but she returned to work so she could “finish her service period honourably”. The bank branch even set up a separate counter for Shinde, so she could continue to work at her own pace without holding up customers.
Srivastava is furious at the customer, Balaraju Somisetty, who posted the original video to Facebook, whom he says had no prior knowledge of the situation and acted in ignorance. Shinde’s husband passed away some time ago and her only son lives abroad with his wife and child, and they can’t visit very often either. It’s likely Shinde has paid for her medical expenses on her own. “Hats off to all the women of our nation who are striving and working hard making all our lives and our nation move ahead,” said Srivastava.
His video has, over the past two days, received just over 69,000 views, but that number is still growing. The original video meanwhile, while accessible until yesterday, has now been taken down. Whether that was because Somisetty saw the new Facebook post or received hate online for his insensitivity is still unclear. But one thing is for certain, the ‘world’s fastest cashier’ has a least gained a few admirers, who all wish her well and a happy retirement.
The original Facebook post has been removed by Kundan Srivastava, the reason for which he elaborated in the post below.
"I've deleted the video of 'Premlata Shinde' from Facebook & YouTube, because now, the world knows the truth and dignity of 'Premlata Ma'am'. The video was deleted because, I want the video not to spread from now.
I posted to teach a lesson to such people like Balaraju Somisetty, shared a video on October 24, 2016 without having a little respect for women & senior citizen and criticized saying her ‘Fastest cashier in the world.’ spreads like a wildfire over 4.9 million views, 149,203 shares and 72k likes.
'बालाराजू' ने गलत विडियो बनाकर गलत तरिक्के से पेश किया, मैं उसी गलत विडियो को शेयर कर सही तरह से पेश किया। आज भी सच का बोलबाला है, इतना ही शाबित करना चाहता हूँ।
I do raise my voice against evil, I will do for today, tomorrow and beyond.
Love. k."
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